Champions League: Atlético 0 – 0 Chelsea

Semifinal still wide open after first leg

The first leg of the Champions League finished as it began, without any goals on the scoreboard.

Atlético Madrid and Chelsea faced each other on Tuesday night, but the Blues showed little intent to play football as they parked the bus for 90 minutes.

José Mourinho was well aware of Atleti’s offensive prowess at home and fielded a defensive line-up with Fernando Torres and Willian as the only offensive minded players. Often the Londoners had 9 or 10 players behind the ball, as they retreated on their own half, only going forward when winning a corner after hoofing the ball to El Niño.

Atlético Madrid lacked finesse to break down the Chelsea defence and failed to score for the first time in this year’s Champions League campaign. The Rojiblancos swung in a great number of crosses, but all were returned by Cahill, Terry and David Luiz who together formed an impenetrable wall.

The only opportunity in the first half was for Mario Suárez, whose curling shot was tipped wide by Mark Schwarzer. The 41-year old had come on to replace Petr Cech, who had to come off earlier when landing awkwardly after saving what seemed like an attempt on goal by Koke from a corner kick. The Czech goalkeeper has been diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder.

At the start of the second half Frank Lampard and later Fernando Torres both shot straight at Thibaut Courtois from distance, but Chelsea quickly returned to their own end. Atlético had two opportunities through Diego Ribas, but both were fired wide before the Brazilian was replaced by Arda Turan.

Perhaps Atleti’s biggest chance came from a set piece, when Gabi’s low drive took a deflection. Schwarzer, however, reacted well and pushed the ball wide. The captain, like Frank Lampard and Obi Mikel, picked up a booking in the second half and will be suspended for the return leg.

There were more opportunities for Atleti, but Raúl García couldn’t direct his header towards goal, while Diego Costa’s goalbound header hit the back of Cahill’s head. Another header by Costa, late in the game, lacked the power and accuracy to surprise Mark Schwarzer.

Don’t let the summary fool you, this was a game of few real chances. Atlético will feel they deserved more, but as Gabi said afterwards, the semifinal is still wide open. The return leg will be played next Wednesday at 20.45 CET.

Wow, I was hoping that we could have scored at least 1 but those bastards parked the bus!
Anyway, the next leg is ours, with a fully fit turan and costa. But the real reason why we didnt score was because of Chelsea’s experience at this stage of the UCL. The year before last they played the exact same way vs Barca. And this is our first semifinal in 40 years, so.. yeah, but we do have some experienced players at this level, (godin, Tiago and Villa) And the bad thing here is that Gabi would miss the second leg and also, Hazard, ivanovic and etoo would return to the second leg so it would be a but tougher but i have a feeling Mou would field a more offensive team in the 2nd leg which is a big advantage for us because we are very dangerous on the counter, So yeah. We’ll win this one! Another final down, 5 more to go maybe 6 in lisbon..
Aupa Atleti!! <3 #PartidoAPartido #FinalAFinal

Amir Habib Mukadaffi

guys if we win against Valencia.. then we are la liga champion 100%.. Because Barca will let us win, so that’s a guaranteed 3 points.. Barca prefers Atletico to be champions then Real Madrid

Ahmad Hossainy

The billionaires Chelsea parking the bus against Atletico Madrid, I can not say more to show how a great team we are

It is not a very good result, but it is not a bad one either,
I think the fact that we did not concede a goal is more important than that we did not score
with one of the two teams need to score to break the tie, I guess the 2nd leg would be easier, especially without Lampard & Mikel, and perhaps without Terry & Cech on Chelsea side

but there are 2 players I’m worried of though who both missed tonight’s game : Hazard & Oscar

Mario did not really convince me tonight, so I guess in the 2nd leg we could start with Tiago & Koke in the midfield with Arda, RG8 and a fast player like Adrian, Cebolla, or Sosa behind Costa

just like Simeone, Gabi’s suspension didn’t bother me very much because “he will be available for the final”

Mourinho tried his best using all his methods and nasty tricks to prevent Courtois from playing, then he ended up to be the one without his first GK ..
football is like life, sometimes it is not fair, and some other times it gives you the ultimate justice !

piserakos

@Ahmad… Agree with you! Gabi would be able to play at the final and he would be the one who will hold the trophy!
Terry and Cech will lose the whole season, those are good news. We were overplayed this little team and we were unlucky we couldn’t win.
Anyway, they didn’t scored so at the 2nd leg we will park the bus! We have to keep a clean shit and they have to score.. I’m sure they would play more offensive and we would be able to counter attack and score and away goal! Lisbon we are coming!

jeronamo

clean sheet @ piserakos

Ahmad Hossainy

yeah, clean sheet .. shit can never be clean !

jeronamo

lol

piserakos

hehehe 😛 my english are not that good 😉

Jeronamo

:). We know bro

Valinia

@AHMAD mario didnt play well but hes way better than koke as a DM.. its ok if u use koke as a DM against weaker teams, but when it comes to chelsea ur gonna be raped. i prefer having mario & tiago in the midfield w/ arda, koke, diego costa & adridn/raul at the front. gutted that gabis gonna miss the second, but it would be worse if hes missing the final

Kim

Yes, not a very good result.. but neither a very bad one.
I believe we can score at SB and I think we will go to Risbon!

Urban

Im not devastated, but im not happy either. We were clearly unable to penetrate Chelsea’s defence and they gave us a taste of our own medicine. I think our chances of making it to the final got worse, but we still can make it if we play much better than against AC Milan.

Chelsea will win at Stamford Bridge. It’s a no go area . There are in the final trust me.

Pantic#10

terrible display of football by mourinho. This is the anti-football. But he already did it many times with his former clubs.
9 men behind the ball. I’ve also seen a player behind the goalkeeper in the 1st half!

He’ll regret to have lost 90 minutes playing like this.

So now we have 2 results at our side, tie (with goals) and victory.
Not bad.
They’ll try to go extra time, penalties and luck are the only ways for them to defeat us.

Atletico9

Pantic#10 – We played the same type of football, when we played Barca away in the UCL. But anaway, it’s was borring.

I believe that we will score in London, and hopefully move on to the final!

Now we should have all focus on Valencia.

Vamos Atleti vamos!

Kim

Yeah…. it is not an anti-football.
We did same way when we went to Camp Nou.. The difference between us and CFC is we scored against Barca by a little opportunity but chelsea couldn’t.

Jose Mou is very clever… but we can do simillar at S.B and score as a crusial counter attack!!!!

EC

We sometimes play defensive counter attacking football like at the camp nou. But Chelsea took it too a new level last night. Chelsea never even wanted to attack once

jeronamo

We didn’t play the same football at the camp nou are you guys serious? We tried to counter and besides barca isn’t like atletico in the way they play so that tactic makes no sense if you’re trying to score a goal. Chelsea didn’t care about scoring a goal, since when have we played like that?????

Kris

All Chelsea wanted was for them to not concede a goal,, they didn’t even TRY to attack. We’d always counter against every team that we play so that’s BS that we play anti football. He fielded NINE defensive players, NINE come on now. I don’t care about how he played tho he got the result that he wanted now we must get a win against Valencia and then a win against this so called Special One at the bridge to make up for how we played yesterday.

Brad

Mou and his style of play is the reason many Americans don’t watch the sport. If you’re not invested in one of the teams, yesterday’s game is incredibly boring.

MR

the funniest thing is that Mou got all the money on earth, can sign anyone and now we can see that this is his preference (I mean anti-football).
at real he had to deal with some skillful players and the expectation of nice attacking football – no wonder he struggled there and fucked up everything.
remember his best team, the CL-winner Inter, where the type of players and mentality matched Mou’s, they were succesful, Mou was happy.
it’s ridiculous to see one of their most skillful player Willian play as a left back (as a second left back, actually)
but hey, maybe next week he shows his full force and fields Etoo and Hazard as 5. and 6. central defenders, that would be great.
Mou gives a perfect example for inferiority complex, he has everything to do well, still his only aim is to stop others doing well. a sore loser with some trophies.

ELI

Mou should be ashamed sure he got his result but he destroyed what should have been an awesome game of football to play 9 defensive players is outrageous and I think its no wonder we didnt manage to score. He robbed the world of what should have been a real spectacle and a fantastic game between two of the worlds best by deciding to play for a tie with no attacking intent what so ever.

kris

Do any of you think that Ancelotti “kind of” played Simeone’s game against Bayern today?? Atleast they counter, Mourinho pisses the hell off of me. No intention to attack whatsoever. Who does that??? But leave that. That’s over with. Now, we have learned that Simeone also doesn’t have a plan when playing against teams who absolutely ONLY DEFEND against us. I think, he is surely going to work on this from now on and make us just as good of a controlling and attacking team as we are a pressing and defending team.. In Simeone, we trust. Forza Atleti!

Kulan

I actually can´t understand why everybody is so upset about us playing 0-0 against Chelsea in a CL-semifinal. Think about it. When was the last time we were in a CL-semi? What expectations did we have when the season started? Where have we been the last 15 years?
We are in a CL-semifinal, with a decent chance of making it through to the final since we didn´t conceed a goal at home and now Chelsea has to attack in the second leg. We are leading La Liga with four rounds to go!
This is amazing! I could never have seriously dreamt of this three years ago. Enjoy this moment!! 🙂

epoy

I would rather have a scoring 1-1 draw than a win in Stamford Bridge just so Mou would regret playing ultra defensive in Vicente Calderon.

Urban

The tie is imho 80% to Chelseas advantage, but we will have our chances and I believe in our boys! We need to play with pacey players up front like DC, Adrian or maybe Villa. We can make it!

Chewie

I’m not sure we have to change anything. Only if Chelsea keep playing ultra-defensive with penalties in mind. Then we have to add some pacy players who can combinate well and penetrate the multi-layered defence. But if Mou will play a more attacking football, we should just stick to what we are used to.

Just think of it – three years ago Cholo was busy saving a club which never ranked higher than 8th in Italy, and now he is facing one of the richest club in the world battling for the most prestigious cup in Europe. Sure he’s faced Mourinho before but he is just inexperienced as a coach as our footballers are as players, so it’s a huge, very important experience for everyone.

BTW Chelsea lost Terry and Cech till the end of the season, Lampard and Obi Mikel will miss the game and other players are not so good in defense. And Simeone knows all that so I’m really curious to see what bith coaches will come up with.

@Jelle: I dont think we can afford his salary. Besides, Alexis is more like a second striker or a winger than a truly forward like Costa. If you want someone who can replace Costa as a scoring machine, I would see Lukaku as a possible candidate

Will

I really think Alexis is an incredible player. I would love to have him in my team but not as a replacement to Diego Costa. And I really don’t think Barcelona would sell him.

Jelle

@Dircil: Yeah, i agree with you about Lukaku! We need a “targetman” with some speed, like Costa.
I don’t see Alexis like a middle forward, he is a winger.
And i don’t understand if Barca conna sell him.

1) About Alexis… Guys, guys… He is FANTASTIC!! I really want him at Atleti, if his salary isn’t that big and he can come for less than 20mil… If we sell costa for 60 mill we can get Torres and Alexis and Correa… So we can turn our formation to 4-2-3-1 with koke, arda and alexis at the middle and torres/villa in frond… Also we may keep Diego. We would have a fantastic team with a fantastic bench…
2) 80% to Chelsea? What??? It is 50-50 not more not less

Dircil

@Piserakos: Torres is 29 and he already passed his best form long time ago. I am against the idea of buying Torres regardless of the price. As suggested above, Ciro or Lukaku is a good replacement for Costa. I prefer Ciro though!

Silchas

torres would rather been the replacement for villa if he leaves

palc

R.I.P. Tito Vilanova

Kris

R.I.P. Tito and fuck you cancer!!!

Ahmad Hossainy

It is really a very sad news .. Goodbye Tito

now we must win the double for both Aragones and Vilanova,
because if we didn’t, Real will win them both (I don’t think Bayern or Chelsea can beat them)
and if Real won their first triple on the year of Aragones death and after a few days of Tito’s it will be a big shame,
I could have a heart attack and join both Luis & Tito !

jeronamo

R.I.P Tito Vilanova… It truly is sad sad news

pantic#10

R.I.P. Tito Vilanova

piserakos

R.I.P Tito! It is really sad new…..
By the way! Happy birthday Atleti and happy birthday Kiko!
@ahmad… I really, really, really, really want Champions League now! The reason is that i think only us can stop Real and i can not accept Real win CL

Chewie

@Ahmad We should not win because of the dead, We should win because we want to and because we can, right here, right now. And because I can’t bear the idea of Real winning any of the trophies. Hell no, it would be a nightmare.

Ahmad Hossainy

@Chewie : of course we should win because we want to, because we can and because we need to
we should win to lift trophies, and if it not possible then to prevent Real from doing so
and honoring the memories of the dead is one more reason for wining

The more the reasons the higher the motivation and the bigger the happiness after wining

I think i broke the site…I”m pretty sure it’s not supposed to run off the side like that

palestine-atletico

225 minutes only and atleti will be campeone 😀
Second half continue without accepting goals a win away against levante then we will celebrate home against malaga.
Cant waittttttttt

Jeronamo

Lmao

Dircil

If we overcome Valencia, we will surely win the La Liga!!!!

Jeronamo

One game at a time

colchonero in sf

Sorry guys but Ive called him Raul Golcia when he was much maligned. Raul— Golcia is the Football Gods making up for suffering from Jesus Gils disbandment of the youth team and losing Raul Gonzalez Blanco. Raul Golcia for seleccion!!!!!

kris

Fucking Costa missing a one on one every single match. What’s wrong with him?? God,, it’s pissing me off these days.

Jelle

Sometimes he should try to kick it to the top of the goal..!

Jeronamo

You and me both Kris

kris

I mean, I am pretty sure I would have scored that. He went for the obvious when he could have kicked it to the far side or chip it up top. SMDH…..

Brad

He should try to kick it where the keeper isn’t

Jeronamo

Idk how I feel about taking villa off this time around

kris

Too much midfield power with Koke, Arda, Sosa.

Jelle

Greate save hmm..

kris

Another opportunity for Costa. Another miss for Costa, nothing new. Goddamn it.

Jeronamo

The less said about that second half the better. On to the next onw

Jeronamo

One*

kris

Thank God, that’s over with. After today’s game and many more this season, I don’t really mind if we sell Costa this summer…… I’m disappointed but very happy for this win. 3 more points in the table. 1 more final won. Two more La Liga games we win, and we are Champions!!! This is an incredible feeling right now. It’s indescribable. It’s just marvelous. I am loving being a Rojiblanco right now.. Thank you, Cholo. Thank you all the players. Thank you all the incredible fans that are cheering Atleti on, may it be away or a home game. Great supporters.